x, 194 pages ; 21 cm

"Eliot Weinberger has taken the essay into unexplored territories on the borders of poetry and narrative where the only rule, according to the author, is that all the information must be verifiable. With An Elemental Thing, Weinberger has created a unique, open-ended serial essay whose individual pieces - on an array of topics - converge in one ever-expanding ideogram, a chamber of echoes, or a hall of mirrors. Like Scheherazade, he leads us through histories, fables, and meditations about the ten thousand things in the universe: the wind and the rhinoceros, Catholic saints and people named Chang, the Mandaeans on the Iran-Iraq border and the Kaluli in the mountains of New Guinea, a lovelorn donkey and Blake's Tyger

Among the thirty-five essays included are a poetic biography of the prophet Muhammad."--Jacket

A collection of essays

Includes bibliographical references (pages 190-194)

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